Hydro66 takes home world’s most eco-sustainable data centre award

​The global DCD Awards 2017 recently took place in London, with Hydro66 bringing home some silverware.

The company’s data centre based in Sweden took out the Data Centre Eco-Sustainability Award for its extraordinary efforts in this space.

Receiving the award on behalf of Hydro66 was its director for Strategic Development, Andy Long who says they are delighted to receive the global award and see their innovation and hard work recognised.

“We are delighted to receive this global award and to see the innovation and hard work of our team recognised. 2017 has been the year when making the right choice for the planet and for the pocket has gone mainstream. Large numbers of companies are realising the environmental and cost benefits of locating processing power in a cool climate close to abundant green power,” says Long.

“I would like to thank Schneider for sponsoring the award and all the members of the judging panel who took the time and effort to fully understand the depth of our commitment to the environment.”

There were a number of heavyweights in the juding panel, including Google’s energy efficiency advocate Joe Kava, Operational Intelligence’s Beth Whitehead, evangelist and engineer Carlos Murad, and Schneider Electric’s Tanuja Randery.

“Sustainability is at the heart of our strategy. Our mission is to help businesses manage the energy challenge while achieving better operational efficiency. We are delighted to support this flagship award that recognises excellence in this field,” says Randery, Schneider Electric’s president for UK & Ireland.

Data centres are an intensive user of energy which means the industry has had to show leadership and a pioneering spirit when it comes to the subject of energy efficiency and what sustainability means in the digital infrastructure sector.

Hydro66 had to demonstrate an innovative and pioneering approach to sustainability through the design of their new data center and through partnership with other organisations in the energy ecosystem.

The company's facility is an ultra-green data centre using Europe’s lowest cost 100 percent hydroelectric energy and free air cooling. According to the company, it is the first large-scale colocation provider to deploy this technology combination of direct free air and 100 percent hydropower.

Since opening the firm has sold out 90 percent of the initial 3.6 MW deployment and has subsequently announced the start of construction of a 15 MW expansion.

Many of the unique features in the Hydro66 data centre stem from the disruptive design that takes advantage of the local environmental and operational climate to minimise the impact on the environment as well as significantly reducing costs.

"Data centres are increasingly under the spotlight as being energy-intensive, and with that scrutiny comes the need for innovation and transparency,” says Long.

The company asserts there are 5 key differences of its data centre that contributed to its success:

1. A spread-out design that takes advantage of the relatively low cost and high availability of the data centre’s location
2. The use whenever possible of locally sourced materials and labour to build and operate the data centre
3. 100 percent free air cooling 100 percent of the time
4. Resilient power designed-in and used as the base line
5. Collaboration with manufacturers

Hydro66 says the company has also been able to pass on the new ultra-low power cost enabled by the Swedish government’s new tax incentives applicable only to large data centres.